Well I’ve tried it in cooking
Prepared every way
And I’ve used all the spices
And stewed it all day

Used curry and stuffing
Tried baking and frying
But the taste of that rabbit
It just wasn’t dying

You could crumb it with breadcrumbs
Or roll it in flour
But the underground mutton
Taste lingered for hours

They say it’s pure protein
Well mate I don’t even care
But don’t ask me for dinner
If rabbit’s the fare

Cheers Furphy

Reckon that Furphy should have had a “chinwag” with my mum, or consulted the South Australian “Green and Gold Cookery Book” advising that rabbit/underground mutton should be soaked in salt water or other concotions to reduced the strong “gamey taste”.

CURRIED RABBIT
Fry two sliced onions until brown in one tablespoonful full of hot dripping; peel, core and grate one apple and add to onion; mix one tablespoon of curry powder with with two cups of water; add one quarter teaspoon of salt; add to and boil with onion and apple; chop one tablespoon of stoned raisins and add when the curry is boiling with one rabbit cut into neat joints. Simmer gently for two hours; and 10 minutes before serving add one tablespoon of flour and the strained juice of half a lemon. – S.R.Smith Congregational Manse, Kadina, South Ausralia.

I’ve never cooked Underground Mutton/ Rabbit myself but, as a child, LOVED my mum’s Curried Rabbit and never forgot her advice to look closely at the tail of a rabbit before purchasing it for my Cookpot. i.e. a rabbit has a tail vertebrae which slowly reduces in size. If the tail has been chopped off it may be a cat. 😦

9 thoughts on “Uu is for – Unbelievable that my Uu post disappeared.”

Good to hear from you Sharn and glad it’s not just me … don’t feel like such a dolt now but am very sorry for your lost work. Felt so grrr that knew if I didn’t post something I’d “drop the ball”, so to speak. Cheers, Catherine.

Oh no!! I didn’t know they did that with cats! Thankfully I’ve never actually bought a rabbit.
I have many many fond memories of going rabbiting in the Strathbogie hills (Victoria) with my ,maternal grandfather and his ferrets and nets. I was very wary of those ferrets! I was also told to soak them in salty water to remove the gamey taste.

How annoying that U has gone underground with the rabbits, or off in cyberspace. We never had rabbit anything when I was a child but I too remember the call of Rabbitoh. As to cats, I’m glad to have that tip so I don’t get caught.

ha ha ha… now that’s probably where my U went… hiding down under with the bunnies 🙂 Yep, check their little tails and, if you could ever cope with eating something that looks so much like a cat, remember the tip re: salty water 😀

This blog challenge is really bringing out some amazing topics, and Underground Mutton would have to be right up there as one I never expected. It’s lovely to have food memories from our past, and that you’re now sharing it with us.

I am sorry to hear the original post went missing, that is painful after taking time to write it all … :(, but glad that you still came up with this one.

Thanks Alona… it nearly did “take the heart from me”.
Something I missed in the quick re-type was that, in the 1940’s/1950’s, “Underground Mutton” was rather looked down on as being “Depression Food” that the poor & unemployed ate. Interesting that, like other cheap & despised foods, eg. “Lamb Shanks” it’s now becoming “trendy”. Makes me laugh… 😀